Suburban sprawl isn’t just an America problem. Canada and Australia have these problems too. However, the Canadians and Aussies are still miles ahead of Americans when it comes to transit.

Let’s compare Kansas City in America to Edmonton in Canada. Edmonton suburbs are of similar density to Kansas City suburbs. And KC has double the metropolitan population. So KC should have the better transit right?

Wrong. Edmonton beats Kansas City significantly when it comes to transit. Most suburban neighborhoods have a bus line within walking distance. Meanwhile in KC, buses are non-existent in most suburbs.

Kansas City is behind Edmonton in rail too. All KC has is a 2 mile street car. Meanwhile Edmonton which has half the metro population has 23 miles of light rail.

I know we can’t generalize big countries like the US and Canada. Like Albuquerque is almost at the same level with a Canadian city of similar size when it comes to transit. But that is the exception rather than the norm in America. After adjusting for metro population and density, America really is behind Canada and Australia at transit.

Edit: How does Canada and Australia have better transit than America despite having suburban sprawl and car-dependency too?